FIRST CLASHES

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20858, 10 August 1942, Page 4

FIRST CLASHES

INDIAN DISORDERS CROWDS~FIRED ON HUNDREDS ARRESTED MORE INCIDENTS LIKELY (By Telegraph—Press Assn.— Copyright.) (2 p.m.) LONDON. Aug. 9. The Indian Government has banned the All-India Congress committee, the Congress working committee, and all the provincial committees. Only one British member beside? the Viceroy was present when the Viceroy's Council decided to make the arrests. The other 11 members were Indians.

To-day’s arrests are expected to total several hundred and are likely to continue for a week. The arrests are officially described as preventative and not punitive.

A communique issued in Bombay states that 149 persons had been arrested by 5 o’clock in the evening. All members of the working committee who attended the recent meeting of the All-India Congress committee have been arrested. Mrs Gandhi and Gandhi’s British disciple Miraben (Miss Madeleine Slade) have also been detained. Gandhi has been interned in a private bungalow at Poona known as .the Aga Khan Palace. The Government spokesman, commenting on the arrests, said: “There are bound to be repercussions. We can hardly expect to avoid some disorder and clashes with the police, but at least these will be minimised by the single police swoop against the whole committee. Individual arrests would probably have meant a series of separate hartals. We intend to reduce the trouble as much as possible by this concerted action.” Congress Office Raided

The British United Press correspondent in New Delhi reports that Congress circles stated that the arrests will not halt the civil disobedience campaign. A rising tide of incidents can be expected throughout India. The police at Patna locked up the local office of the All-India Congress committee and arrested Purushottamdas Tandon, Speaker of the United Provinces Assembly, and also Dr. Rajendra Prasad, a member of the Congress working committee and a former president of the Congress. The Congress offices in New Delhi were raided and several arrests were made on .the premises. A number of Congress leaders were arrested in Bombay. They included the Mayor of Bombay, Meher Ali. Hindu shopkeepers in New Delhi arc closing. One third of New Delhi s shops are shut but the Moslems are still open. A curfew is being applied in unruly areas to-night. The assembly of more than four persons is prohibited and the carrying of weapons is barred. /- . _ , Although many crowds in Bombay were dispersed by tear-gas and also by mild lathi charges, the crowds continued to collect aiid stone buildings, trams, and buses. (A lathi is a bamboo pole about 6ft. long. Crowds Stop Traffic Later messages from Bombay report that the crowds in many areas are stopping traffic. Many peaple abandoned conveyances and walked. Mobile police squads are constantly dispersing the crowds. Some shopping areas are completely closed; British and Americans are booed amid shouts of “Quit India!’’ “Boycott British Goods!’’ “Boycott American Goods!’’ Nobody was known to have been killed in the firing, but several are stated to have been wounded; Reuter’s correspondent in Bombay estimated that five persons were killed and 20 wounded by bullets in 20 city localities and 35 injured by stones, including 15 police. . : ■ It is officially announced that two Government grain shops in Bombay were looted, buses set on fire and police, especially European police officers, assaulted. The police fired on unruly crowds in five localities. Fifteen persons have so far been sent to hospital with bullet wounds. The police fired on demonstrators in Bombay after stones and bottles had been thrown. Shots were fired directly into the menacing groups which refused to disband. The police placed a cordon round the Bombay terminal railway station. Seven-day Curfew One person was killed and one injured when the police fired on stone throwers at Ahmedabad. An attempt was made to set fire to a police post. The Ahmedabad, Raipur and Kliadia areas have a curfew imposed for seven days. Bombay police this evening were still endeavouring to disperse a crowd in Shaviji Park, where Gandhi was scheduled to speak. Tear-gas and lathis were repeatedly used. The Congress flag salutation ceremony at . the Congress committee marquees at Bombay had been announced for this morning, but long before the volunteers assembled the police took possession of.the grounds and called on the gathering crowds to disperse. Repeated warnings met with no response, Whereupon the police dispersed the crowd by baton charges and tear-gas. Mi-. Jinnah has appealed to Moslems to keep completely aloof from the Congress movement until the Moslem League working committee reaches its decisions next Sunday, and also warned the Congress Party members not to interfere with, molest, harass, or picket Moslems.